This was a great tasting. Where else can you taste 89 high end German Rieslings (most of them 2001's) for $25. They had enough back-up bottles so that nothing ever ran out. It was very interesting to try a wine that had been open and poured for an hour, then try a newly opened bottle. The biggest contrast was the Haart Piesporter Goldtropfchen spatlese, which was warm and too sweet at the end of the bottle, but perfectly balanced upon the opening of a bottle sitting in ice water.

It was good to see Stealthman_1 and rhonefan (Mark of our BAWE tasting group). Mark said that there were still some wines left from the tasting from the lectures, so the three of us went back. Got a chance to try a 90 and 97 Egon Muller Scharzhofberger spatlesen, which was a fabulous experience. Stealthman, who attended the lecture kept talking about the 90. These wines are about as expensive as German rieslings get, so I was very interested in trying them. The 90 had a varnish-like petrol nose (not unlike the DeMol PN a the BAWE tasting at Acacia or the LVC zin at the next to last BAWE tasting). The 96 had a rubbery-like petrol nose. The taste of the 90 was steely (I think this is also what Stealthman said), but the 97 was thoroughly enjoyable for me. But, I would only give these wines a + and didn't think they were as good as some of the other wines at the tasting, regardless of their reputation.

The setting was ideal. The Presidio in San Francisco has a gorgeous view of the Golden Gate Bridge (one of the conference rooms next to the tasting had a perfect view) along with Monterrey Pines that frame any view of the Bay or the ocean with its wild sweeping branches. Someone said that the US military has some of the choicest spots in the US. This is definitely one of them. I went to a 12 lane bowling alley (not bad for a military base) to enjoy a burger and fries. It was such a contract from the Masters of Wine wine tasting, which on occasion got a little snooty. I thought to myself that I really don't fit in that well with either group.

I tried 5 trockens and 2 halbtrockens out of the 55. One has a nice nose. I didn't enjoy the taste of any of them. Somehow a dry German riesling just does not do it for me. I love the sweet-sour, sweet-acid conflict. I tried all of the 34 sweeter wines, many of them several times. All are 2001's unless noted. For me a + is a wine I would buy. ++ is a wine that I would go out of my way to buy. +++ means I'm emotionally smitten by the wine:

Edmund Reverchon Wiltinger Gottsfuss Kabinett - OK nose, citrisy
Schloss Saarstein Serringer Schloss Saarsteiner Kabinett - Sour
Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Kabinett - OK
Losen-Bockstanz Wittlicher Portnersberg Kabinett - slightly bitter
Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett - Good, but slightly bitter
Willi Schaefer Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett - ++ Good nose and flavors, a classic Kabinett
2000 Pauly-Bergweiler Bernkasteler alte Badstube am Docterberg Kabinett - petroly, but not bad
Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Kabinett - + Good. Easy to see why people rave about the higher pradikat wines of this estate/vineyard
Max. Fer. Richter Wehlenehr Sonnenuhr Kabinett - + Good. Very nice Kabinett
Schloss Saarstein Serringer Schloss Saarteiner Spatlese - Spicy, sour
St. Urbans-Hof Ockfener Bockstein Spatlese - Petroly
1993 Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Spatlese - Petroly, sweet with soft acids
Egon Muller Scharzhofberger Spatlese - ++ Intense, nice sweet-sour mix, amazingly instense
Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Scharzhofberger Spatlese - OK
von Schubert Maximin Grunhauser Abtsberg Spatlese - + good, but not as good as I expected since I love the auslese.
Frederich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium Trittenheimer Apotheke Spatlese - + Pretty nose
Grans-Fassian Trittenheimer Apotheke Spatlese - + Good solid wine
Rheinhold Haart Pierporter Goldtropfchen Spatlese - ++ Very sweet from a near empty bottle. Perfect from a new bottle stored in ice. Very concentrated. I can see why the Parkerites think that Rovani underated this with a 91
Max Fred. Richter Brauneberger Juffer Spatlese - ++ Very lovely wine all around
Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Spatlese - + Strong acid
Markus Molitor Zeltinger Himmelreich Spatlese - ++ Nice balance and flavors
Markus Molitor Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spatlese - + Not as good as the Himmelreich, slightly bitter
Moselland eG Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese - slightly bitter
Studert Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr - OK
Monchhof Urziger Wurzgarten Spatlese - +++ I love this wine. A K&L employee agreed with me. She said the Monchhof Erdener Pralat auslese is also fantastic. I give it +++ because at $18.95 is it much less than the other ++ wines (or lesser rated wines for that matter)
Wwe. Dr. Thanisch, Erben Muller-Burggraef Bernkasteler Doctor Spatlese - OK. A big disappoinment and surprising different from the 2nd wine after. Obviously the Muller-Burggraef erben (family) is not nearly as good as the Thanisch family
Wegeler Bernkasteler Doctor Spatlese - ++ Classic Mosel. What else is there to say
Wwe. Dr. Thanisch, Erben Thanisch Bernkasteler Doctor Spatlese - ++ another classic. Too bad these last two wines are so expensive
Richard Richter Winningen Rotgen Spatlese - + OK, a drop off, but still good
1999 S. A. Prum Graacher Domprobst Spatlese - Good depth,but slightly bitter
1998 S. A. Prum Graacher Domprobst Spatlese - + Much better than the 1999
Hupfeld Hochheimer Konigin Victoriaberg Spatlese - + Nice
Schloss Vollrads Schloss Vollrads Spatlese - + Nice
Balthasar Ress Rudesheimer Berg Schlossberg Auslese - OK. Not nearly as nice as the Leitz version. This was the only auslese (although most of the 2001 spatlesen could have been classified as auslesen.

Sorry for the brief notes, but I wantd to rate the wines first, then comment later. The first go around was crowded and I had a pushy lady with a clipboard that kept poking me.

Thoughts as I sat outside after the tasting enjoying the view. I still don't like trockens and halbtrockens even though I got to try some of the better ones. The Egon Muller wines are very very expensive. They were interesting and their 2001 Scharzhofberger spatlese was really really intense and lovely, but I didn't care that much for the 90 or the 97 (good, interesting, but not worth the price). It is good to see the Bernkasteler Doctor's (Dr. Thanisch, Thanisch family and Wegeler) reach their classic status after dropping off in the past. The Willi Schaefer Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett was certainly impressive. Selbach-Oster made another solid showing. It would have been interesting to compare these (among the best in Germany) to the Christoffel's, J.J. Prum's, Donnhoff's, Muller-Catoir's that make up most of my 2001 collection. As I went back to try all of the + and ++ wines again, and again, as the crowds disappeared, I kept thinking how wonderful these wines are.

GATC

Great post...you and Stealthman deserve a pat on the back for the lengthly descriptive posts on this event.

Good read...Thank you.

GATC, great notes!!! I missed the comment about the Monchhof Erdener Pralat Auslese, that's great news cause I snagged the last 3 bottles at K&L SF Friday morning. Yippee!!! The Monchhf Urziger Wurzgarten Spatlese was the wine of the tasting for me.

I now have TWO German Gurus! Thank you GATC and Stealthman -- I was wanting some more Spatlese, as that is (was?) the weakest part of my 2001 collection.

Add three cases of Monchoff UrzWurz Spatlese to the cellar!

I'm adding this link to Stealth's description of this event so we won't lose any of this invaluable information along the way:

Stealthman's Descriptions

Thank you, guys.

Er, or is this the Post of the Week?!